NBA Teams May Need League Approval For Ticketing Deals

NBA Teams Currently Are Free To Ink Local
Ticketing Deals In Primary, Secondary Markets

The NBA is "discussing a plan that would require league approval of its teams' deals with outside ticketing companies, a departure from its current hands-off approach, as the league looks to maximize the value of future ticketing agreements," according to Lombardo & Lefton of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. NBA clubs currently are "free to strike their own local ticketing deals in the primary and secondary markets, but the league believes that a more centralized structure could help give its teams increased scale and traffic to drive the value of new deals." The league is "expected to ask teams for their primary ticketing sales contracts as it begins gathering data on their various agreements." NBA Deputy Commissioner & COO Adam Silver: "It is about increasing the scale and leverage. We are exploring the issue and we want to be able to give teams other options." The NBA has "no leaguewide deal with an outside primary ticketing vendor and is in renewal talks with Ticketmaster for its secondary ticketing partnership." Exerting control over which outside ticketing vendors teams do business with "would not only improve financial terms of a total deal but could also mirror a more centralized model the NFL is adopting" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 11/1 issue).